Coop cleaning question....

[hazen]

Cleaning out the coop this afternoon.....other than bedding removal, and sweeping out and total poo removal, are there any other suggestions or techniques that any of you use? I thought i read about people spraying down the inside with ACV.... is there any validity to that? Just looking for "green" or "old timer" ways to take care of the girls. Thanks .

1 BO, 1BSL, 1RSL, 1 SLW, 1 Delaware (whats the BYC abbreviation???), 1 EE

 

[booker81]

I think it depends on what type of system you're using on your coop.

I clean out once a year - and it's a total clean out. I'll wait til it's warm enough to lock the heathens out in the run, and then take all the litter out, inspect the floor for rot, and then probably put some lime or DE down. Then, I'll just put down enough shavings to give me a goo 6-8" or more of depth, and leave it for another year.

I throw BOSS out on the litter so they scratch it up and keep it nice. It's 11 months old now, and only just starting to get a whiff of smell to it, probably because the snow has kept everyone inside for a couple months.

 

[sunnyvera]

Since I painted all the inside walls glossy white, I can totally see any poo or stuff on the walls. When the weather warms up, I clean the walls and repaint sections, if necessary. It looks so totally clean and bright when I am done. I too use the deep litter and the girls are outside most of the time so the inside stays pretty nice. It has been 7 months, and the litter still looks and smells good. I don't know when I will do it.

 

[drdoolittle]

booker81 wrote:

Then, I'll just put down enough shavings to give me a goo 6-8" or more of depth, and leave it for another year.

So, that's ALL the shavings you put down in the coop for the entire year? Just asking, because this is how I would like to do it----how often do you throw the BOSS down----once a day?

I have been trying to use the deep litter method with hay that my goats don't eat------whatever they waste goes into the coop. But I found out hay is much, much harder to get cleaned up than shavings.

I ma dreading Spring Break, as that's when I'm totally cleaning out the coop-----it's going to take at least three days.

 

[booker81]

I try to keep the level at about 6-8". WHen I first put it down, it's all fluffy and nice, and I put another two bags in last year after a month. After that, nothing. It's 10x10, and I *think* I have a total of 6 bags of shavings in there. I've not added anything since May or so.

I give them a cup of BOSS probably every other day. Occasionally - like maybe once a month - I'll take the pitchfork and fluff the places they haven't gotten to, and under the roost where there is more poo

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I also scrape the roosts, although I do that as needed during the year, too. Plus sweep or vacuum the walls and light fixtures to remove cobwebs and dust. We have screening over the hardware cloth on the windows, so that needs to have dust cleaned off, too.

For deep litter, I remove most of the litter. I don't worry about removing every trace, because that seeds the new litter with good organisms. I also don't disinfect or add things like lime or DE on the floor before adding the new litter. I'm trying to continue with the good organisms, not kill them.

If you've had disease problems or are not using deep litter, then you may want to do things differently.

 

[Tomski]

Silly question - What is BOSS?

 

[booker81]

Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

 

[hazen]

How about the ACV.......Anybody heard about it....

 

[darkmatter]

I clean out the Coop only once a year in the spring and use the Composted litter in the Garden. I use the Deep litter Composting Pit Method, that's a bit different from what others on this forum are calling DLM. See my BYC page for pics of my setup. My Coop is on a raised brick foundation with a sub-ground dirt floor pit which can get up to 18 inches of compost. When I clean it out in the Spring, I add a few inches of lawn clippings, pine needles/cones, and whatever else can be raked up. I add all summer long and only turn it over occasionally since the chickens do it for the most part with just a little scratch tossed in. By Spring it's a wonderful rich black/brown crumbly loam/compost that makes my Garden grow great.